OFFICER SAID HE GAVE STOLEN DRUG MONEY TO CHARITY, TWO TESTIFY

By LEONARD BUDER

Published: May 13, 1987

A suspended New York City police officer told two psychiatrists that he gave to charity most of the $4,000 he is charged with stealing from drug dealers, the psychiatrists testified at his trial yesterday.

One psychiatrist said the officer, 36-year-old Robert Rathbun, told him that he gave the money away because it ''did not feel right.'' The other said the officer told him that on some Sundays he went to three churches to drop the money in poor boxes.

The testimony came before both sides rested their cases in the trial of Officer Rathbun, a member of the force since 1974, who is charged with conspiracy, burglary, theft, possession and sale of marijuana and crack and official misconduct.

Summations before Justice Felice Shea are to start this morning. Testimony About Childhood

Eleven other officers are to go on trial as a result of an undercover investigation into corruption at the 77th Precinct in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section. One accused officer, Brian O'Regan, committed suicide and another, William Gallagher, pleaded guilty.

In testimony yesterday, the psychiatrists - one appearing for the defense and the other for the prosecution - disagreed on Officer Rathbun's emotional state when he and other officers are said to have stolen money and drugs from Brooklyn dealers.

Appearing for the defense, Dr. Daniel W. Schwartz, director of forensic psychiatry at Kings County Hospital, said that Officer Rathbun had an unhappy family life as a child and that his parents, who were divorced when he was a teen-ager, had favored his twin sister. He said Officer Rathbun suffered from depression, which became worse while at the Brooklyn precinct as he experienced what he regarded as reverses in his police career.

But Dr. Azariah Eshkenazi, a psychitrist for the prosecution, said, ''I most respectfully disagree with Dr. Schwartz about his depression.'' He said that when he examined Officer Rathbun on Monday, the officer talked fondly of his childhood and about taking long walks with his father and twin sister and playing games with his mother.

The main prosecution witness has been Officer Henry Winter, who the authorities say agreed to cooperate with investigators after he was arrested for taking payoffs from a drug dealer.In return for his cooperation, which included wearing a hidden recording device while on duty, he has been granted immunity from prosecution but will be dismissed from the force. Seeking 'Strength'

Dr. Schwartz, in his testimony yesterday, said that because of Officer Rathbun's state of mind, while at the 77th Precinct he ''was looking for someone who would give him a feeling of strength, a feeling of support.''

Referring to the relationship that Officer Rathbun developed with Mr. Winter, who became his partner on the plainclothes anti-crime squad, Dr. Schwartz said of Officer Rathbun: ''He boasted to this man of things he had never done, I mean enormous conquests. I can only liken it to guys in a locker room boasting of tremendous conquests that likely never happened.

''He was hoping Winter would admire him,'' Dr. Schwartz said.

Under cross-examination by a prosecutor, Martin Hershey, Dr. Schwartz was asked if Officer Rathbun told him he illegally obtained about $4,000, of which he kept only $40 for his personal use and gave the rest to charities and church poor boxes. The psychiatrist said Officer Rathbun talked about the money but did not say exactly how much he kept. He said the defendant only said he gave most of it to church charities ''because it just did not feel right.''

Dr. Eshkenazi, who was called to rebut Dr. Schwartz's testimony, also mentioned that Officer Rathbun told him he gave away the money - all but about 1 percent, or $40 -to church charities. Mr. Hershey, in his questions, showed considerable skepticism that the defendant had given away the money in that fashion.